A U.S. airman is charged in death of an Indigenous South Dakota woman who had vanished in August

Law enforcement authorities in South Dakota say a woman who had been missing since last summer was murdered by a member of the U.S. Air Force.

Quinterius Chappelle was arrested on a federal charge of second-degree murder in the death of Sahela Sangrait, according to a social media post by the Pennington County Sheriff's Office. A federal public defender listed for Chappelle declined to comment.

Authorities say Chappelle, a 24-year-old active-duty airman stationed at Ellsworth Air Force Base, murdered Sangrait on the military installation near Rapid City. Investigators did not say how or when they believe Chappelle killed Sangrait or whether the pair knew each other. Sangrait's remains were found in early March by a hiker in Hill City, nearly 40 miles southwest of the base.

Ellsworth Air Force Base did not immediately reply to NPR's request for comment. A spokesperson for the base told the New York Times that Chappelle was an aircraft inspection journeyman for the 28th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron and had entered the service in 2019.

Sangrait, 21, had been missing since August. She was Native American, according to a missing person flyer posted on Facebook. Sangrait had been staying with a friend in Eagle Butte, but was planning to gather some belongings in her hometown of Box Elder, which borders the base, before traveling to California, according to the flyer.

Rates of violence and murder against Native American and Alaska Native people in the U.S. — particularly women — are disproportionately high. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report found that American Indian and Alaska Native women had the second-highest rate of homicide among American women between 2003 and 2014. In a 2016 study funded by the National Institute of Justice, 84 percent of American Indian and Alaska Native women said they had experienced violence in their lifetimes — with nearly four in ten saying they had experienced violence in the previous year.

The National Crime Information Center said in 2016 that there were 5,712 reports of missing American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls across the country. Indigenous people make up about 60 percent of South Dakota's missing persons cases, South Dakota Searchlight reported in April.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs Missing and Murdered Unit, which helps analyze and solve cases of American Indian and Alaska Native people who have disappeared or been killed, was part of the investigation into Sangrait's death.

The Pennington County Sheriff's Office said the case against Chappelle would be prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of South Dakota, which did not immediately return a message left by NPR.

As of Monday afternoon, Chappelle was being held in the Pennington County Jail on behalf of the U.S. Marshals Service, according to a county database.

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